Archive | November, 2012

Guarantee fund officials have asked residents of Ndego sector in Kayonza district to write a letter demanding compensation over their property destroyed by animals in Akagera National Park.

The officials revealed this during the meeting that gathered residents of Ndego sector and Akagera park administration on November 20th 2012.

Guarantee fund is subsidiary of Rwanda Development Fund (RDF) which manages several credit guarantee funds.

Guarantee fund is a facility put in place by the Rwandan government as an instrument to boost investment in different sectors. The aim of this guarantee is to promote financing to viable rural projects without enough collateral or regarded risky by banks.

Theogene Semugisha, civil registrar in Ndego sector revealed that compensation money has been available for two past months.

“Elephants destroyed crops, wounded some residents and killed others. These residents will be compensated of all the destruction ever since 2002,” Semugisha highlights.

Though residents are set to receive compensation, animals are still escaping and destroying more property.

An example is how elephants escaped from the Akagera national park on November 16th 2012 and wondered in Isangano and Karambi cells in Ndego sector.

However, the elephants did not harm any human being but ate up residents crops.

Residents are celebrating over compensation but suggest the park’s fence be rebuilt and strengthened to prevent the problem.

President Kagame shares a light moment with guests during dinner with business leaders in Lagos, 9 November 2012 (Photo by PPU)

Rwanda’s national carrier RwandAir, Serena Hotel and Thousand Hills Expedition have put together a discounted package for Nigerians planning to travel to Rwanda, in a deal announced Thursday November 15, 2012.

The promotion launched in Lagos, Nigeria, will provide an affordable travel package which is inclusive of what has been described as “out-of-this-world expedition experience and five-star accommodation” in Rwanda.

RwandAir, which now flies five times weekly Kigali-Lagos route in partnership with Serena Hotels, one of the largest hotel chains in East-Africa and Thousand Hills Expedition, leading tourism company in Rwanda, put together the exciting package.

For only US$1,350 per person, Nigerian travelers will get an all inclusive four-night package to experience the beautiful greenlands of Kigali and Gisenyi, a return flight ticket, tour services, meet and greet and return airport transfers, said the firms in a joint statement.

While explaining the travel package at a destination Rwanda promotion seminar for travel agencies in Lagos, RwandAir Nigeria Country Manager, Hafeez Balogun detailed the bouquet of the airline’s offerings which includes numerous discounted fares on all RwandAir destinations.

Balogun said: “RwandAir is one of the fastest growing airlines in the continent giving passengers special treat with young and reliable aircraft fleet.”

“The Lagos-Kigali route is serviced by the new Boeing 737-800NG, the very first on the African continent.”

Denise Benzinge-Omany, Sales & Marketing Manager Kigali Serena Hotel said: “we are focusing on Nigerian travelers not only to use Rwanda as transit point to their final destination, but also for the travelers to have a feel and experience the beautiful natural scenery that our country offers”.

Jacqui M. Sebageni representing Thousand Hills Expeditions at the seminar stated that the travel package is targeted at Nigerian travelers who desire a different kind of vacation from the ordinary as well as feel at home.

At the function, RwandAir also gave away one business class return ticket Lagos/Johannesburg via a raffle draw at the seminar. Olaoye Olubimpe Priscilla of Giovanni Travels and Tour was the lucky winner.

The latest promotion comes after President Paul Kagame completed a two-day high level visit to Nigeria last weekend. The President met Nigerian business leaders and gave a historic lecture at a function hosted by Nigerian Young Professionals.

Following President Kagame’s visit, Nigerian media have been abuzz with articles praising him and lambasting Nigerian politicians and other African leaders. On social networks, there is still a fierce debate about the state of affairs in Nigeria compared to Rwanda. Some have actually suggested that they would like to have a Kagame-like leader for Africa’s most populous country.

Through the Nyungwe Nziza Project, conservationists want to make it easier to visit the Park (courtesy photo)

Nziza Project, located in Rwanda’s Nyungwe forest has been named winner of the British Guild of Travel Writers’ top Globe Award (BGTW), at the Guild’s prestigious annual awards dinner in London’s Savoy Hotel on the night of November 04.

Sited in south-west, the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) project was praised for harmonising tourism, wildlife, environmental and agrarian development in one of Africa’s last surviving patches of primeval pre-Ice Age rainforests. The project was described as one of the world’s richest and most diverse eco-systems and home to 25 percent of all of Africa’s primates.

In presenting the award, Guild Chair Roger Bray said: “Nyungwe Nziza is a model tourism project for developing countries whose benefits will long outlast this or subsequent governments.”

The Nyungwe project also came first in the awards’ Wider World category where the two runners up were central Georgia’s Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park, nominated by Peter Lynch, and San Antonio, Texas’s Morgan’s Wonderland, nominated by Mary Moore Mason.

The former project, sited in the largest true wilderness area in continental Europe, has opened up accommodation, bridges and foot, bike and horseback trails to the public in the last few years, and the latter project is the world’s first theme park designed specifically for physically and mentally disabled people.

Other major awards –all given to tourism projects completed in the past three years – went to Greenwich’s Cutty Sark Restoration and to France’s Loire à Vélo cycle trail.

The BGTW also presented travel writing and photography awards, selected by an outside jury, to its own members during the evening, which was attended by some 300 top travel industry and media representatives. It was sponsored by the city of Las Vegas, which presented an array of glittering entertainment.

The runners up were Glasgow’s Riverside Transport Museum, nominated by David Prest, and Edinburgh’s Extended and Improved Museum of Scotland., nominated by Paul Wade. The former is an outstanding collection of vintage cars, ships and boats set in a bold Zaheer Habib-designed building and the latter, the UK’s most visited attraction outside London, has integrated two adjacent museums into one, adding 16 new galleries and displaying 8,000 objects for the first time.

The third category – for the best new European tourism attraction – was nominated by Gillian Thornton and honoured the completion of the safe, 800km Loire à Vélo cycle trail from Nevers to the Atlantic after 10 years of work by two French regions and six départements.

The runners up were France’s totally revamped Toulouse Lautrec Museum, set in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Albi, and the Museum aan de Strom (Museum of the River) in Antwerp, Belgium. Nominated by Kathy Arnold, the first attraction contains the world’s largest collection – some 1,000 paintings – by world-renowned artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The second attraction, nominated by Stuart Forster and housing some 450,000 historical artefacts and works of art, has helped regenerate what had been the abandoned docklands north of central Antwerp.

In a meeting that took place on 26/10/2012, the Rwanda association or hotels, bars, restaurants and lodges in the district of Rubavu advised the people to always show things that they do to develop tourism.

The district of Rubavu is one district with many hotels and lodges but these hotels and lodges are not known because the owners do nothing to advertise them. This becomes a problem to tourists since they will not know where they are going yet there are people to receive them.

Apart from the big hotels, with well-known names, other hotels that do not advertise themselves get few people, and this is because they do less in promoting themselves.

The president of the association of the owners of hotels, bars, restaurants, and lodges, Denis Karera said that “working together as an association is very good and since one person with many people can be able to refer others to someone else because of the good working conditions”.

Karera added on saying that “advertising their work is good since it helps them get known by people yet this is done by few of them. He added on saying that “this together with good service delivery will help them get their customers that visited back. Good service delivery is one thing that is being emphasized by this association in this district”.

The district of Rubavu has a lot of tourist attraction apart from Lake Kivu, and the Congo border, since people with hotels, bars, restaurants, and lodges have other different things they do that promote tourism as said by Beniot Munyakindi an employee of RDB in Rubavu district were they have the mountain of Rubavu that is being prepared for tourism activities and also the one of Nengo that has the history of the world war 2.

Best Western Eco Hotel opened its doors two months ago. It is located in the middle of the town of former Kibuye now Karongi. Investors in Karongi prefer to locate their hotel business on the lakeshores of Kivu but Best Western Eco Hotel owner chose to make a difference and put it in the heart of Karongi town.

Apart from restaurants and food stores, Best Western Eco Hotel is the only hotel located in the central town.

The investor who the idea is Nahayo Vincent, the owner and Director General of Nyungwe Chimps Travel Agency (NCTA), also Legal Representative of Rwanda Environmental Awareness Project (REAP).

In an interview with www.sightsofrwanda.com, Mister Nahayo explained why he prefers his hotel in the middle of the town: “Not all people are equal financially speaking, of course it’s good to sleep by the lakeside but I don’t think everyone needs it! I preferred to run my business in the central town to facilitate access to my customers. Before you start a business you need to first of all study your market. I’ll give you an example, you’ve just arrived from Kigali and you need a place where to rest without making extra travel. You know all hotels here are located by the lakeshores. Imagine you arrive in Karongi at night and you’ve not provided for extra transport fares. What will happen then? I guess you’ll definitely need to go to the nearest hotel. That is how the idea crossed my mind and I started my hotel business here in Kibuye town.”

Concerning the name of the hotel, the owner says he chose ‘Best Western Eco Hotel’ based on two main points: the word Western to indicate the location because his business is in Karongi district, which is part of the Western Province. The hotel is also part of a large business he runs in the Province including a campsite in western Rusizi district. The campsite is currently under development at a peninsula in Lake Kivu. Besides, Nahayo Vincent says he’s also finalizing the construction of another hotel in the same district. The businessman tells more about his campsite business:

“Most Rwandans slept in tents in exile as a result of the 1994 genocide and war, so they have a relatively harsh memory about tents, but let’s talk about those who didn’t have that experience. How many years have you slept indoors? In fact try a tent it once and you’ll see the result. We call them tents but those used for camping are actually designed for that particular purpose. They’re fully fledged with sleeping bags and ventilations to let you breathe fresh air from camping site.”

Best Western Eco Hotel in the town of Karongi (former Kibuye)

Nahayo’s campsite project will be extended to Karongi district, where he has already purchased a land at Mpembe. The second part of his Hotel name is Eco. He says this is in line with his passion to promote environment.

“You see, the hotel is in a busy town next to the bus station. You can imagine the smokes from the exhaustion pipes polluting the air. So I’ve envisaged to plant trees that will help provide fresh air around the hotel. Moreover, the rooms are painted with environmentally-friendly paints.”

The shape of the building follows Rwanda’s geographical situation and the location of its parks. Nahayo says this is an add-value component as he points out:

“The building comprises three parts. One facing the South, the second one facing the North and the third one looking East. We have Nyungwe Park in the south, the Volcanoes National Park in the north and the Akagera National Park in the East. Furthermore, the 10 hotel rooms in the southern part of the building bear 10 names of 10 species of primates found in Nyungwe Park.”

On top of Hotel and campsites businesses, Nahayo have plans to start package tour business:

“Package tour or package holiday is not common in Rwanda but people do it without knowing. It consists of transport and accommodation advertised and sold together by a vendor known as a tour operator. Other services may be provided like a rental car, activities or outings during the holiday. Package holidays are organized by a tour operator and sold to a consumer by a travel agent. Some travel agents are employees of tour operators, others are independent.”

Nahayo has extended his business to further innovations where he employs local motorcyclists who attract customers to his hotel (Best Western Eco Hotel) in Karongi. Each motorcyclist who brings one customer earns a 500Rwf airtime, and if they bring up to 10 people per day they get a 5,000Rwf incentive. It’s a very effective way since there are no other means of public transport around the town but taxi motorcycles.

The tariffs at Best Western Eco Hotel are reasonable compared to services which include bedrooms with television and wireless internet for free.